


Victory is always bittersweet

by bythunder



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Canon Universe, Gen, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 11:09:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11160651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bythunder/pseuds/bythunder
Summary: When Ghost howls, Sansa knows something is wrong.





	Victory is always bittersweet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kingsnow (bravegentlestrong)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravegentlestrong/gifts).



> Based on a tumblr prompt from kingsnow

When Ghost howls, Sansa knows something is wrong. Ghost had always been different from his littermates, he’d never once barked or growled. Sansa had never heard him make a sound, even his footfalls were silent. When Ghost howls, Sansa knows something is wrong.

It’s more than two moons turns before she finds out exactly what happened. The army is marching back to Winterfell, victorious against the Others. Already the air seems sweeter, warmer, but the army carries with them a dark cloud, the weight of their dead brothers-in-arms. As Lady of Winterfell, Sansa dutifully greets the host, accommodations had been arranged for everyone who’d braved the War, a feast was to be held that very evening, meager but finer than anyone had seen in years. But as she stood in the courtyard, there is one person she can’t find. She looks through the throngs, but he had the wrong hair, that man was too tall, the other too fat… Where was Jon? When Daenerys approaches, looking more like a grieving widow than a conquering hero, Sansa knows. The Dragon Queen doesn’t even get the words out before the first tear falls.

Ghost never leaves her side anymore. Since Jon left him in her care before going to war _(never to come home, oh how Sansa wants to hate him for that but she can’t…)_ Ghost had been her constant companion, but now he’s become her shadow, a part of her, he doesn’t even go off alone to hunt anymore, instead eating scraps at her table, like his sister used to, a lifetime ago. He needs her, she thinks, as much as she needs him.

 

* * *

 

Arya sees Winterfell, her first sight of home since she was just a slip of a girl, and her heart swells. Home. She’s _home_. She digs her heels into Nymeria’s side and together they’re flying through the gates. She’s laughing with the joy of it all, knowing that her family will be waiting for her. Rumors reached her even in the Riverlands, Sansa was alive, she’d survived the Lannister regime and took back their home on Falcon’s wings. Rickon had been found, savage but safe on Skagos, mothered by a Wildling woman. And _Jon_. Her favorite brother, her fellow outcast. He’d risen from the grave and Arya knew _knew_ in her heart that it was for her. He couldn’t just die without ever seeing her again, without mussing her hair and calling her ‘little sister’ once more.

Her whoops and hollers alerted the household to her arrival. Shaggydog rushes out first, big and fierce and black, but he bows before Nymeria. Arya spies Rickon, wide-eyed and watching from the doorway. He must not remember her, he was only a baby when they’d gone south, but Arya knows that boy is her brother, with those Tully curls that she alone went without. “Rickon!” She grins at him and waves him over to her but the boy simply yells for Sansa before running off. Arya’s not hurt, they’re together now, they have the rest of their lives to reforge their broken bond, Rickon will know her soon enough. She sees the red and the white arrive at almost the same time. Sansa sweeps into the yard, somehow ladylike even as she stares, mouth agape. Ghost is at her heels and then he’s by Arya’s side. She swings down from Nymeria’s back and throws her arms around Ghost's neck. “Oh! Where’s Jon!” She asks the wolf, because he’s bonded to Jon, just the way she’s bonded to Nymeria. Arya doesn’t know how she knows, but she knows. The Old Gods had sent these wolves to them. Ghost drops his head and Arya asks again, “Where’s Jon?”

“Arya, there are things we must discuss…” Sansa says, her voice soft and heavy and impossibly _sad_ …

No, **no** _, no_ , **_NO GODSDAMMIT_** , Arya didn’t make it all this way, she didn’t survive this long to lose it all now. She was _home_ , they were all _home_ , they were going to be a family again, _the pack survives_. “Where is Jon!” Arya screams at her sister. “Where’s my brother!” She hates that her eyes are watering, when was the last time she even cried, stupid, she was a direwolf and wolves don’t cry. They don’t cry.

“He’s not our brother!” Sansa screams back. She’s crying too, but why would Sansa ever cry over Jon? She’d never liked him all that much, she never let him be anything more than a half-brother. Not like she and Jon. “He’s not our brother and he’s never coming back…”

And Ghost howls.


End file.
